Monday, January 31, 2011

Roman Catholic Daily Readings For Tuesday, 1 February

From USCCB, CNA and Catholic Online:

Daily Readings:


Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated:


Scriptural Readings:

First Reading - Heb 12:1-4

1 Therefore ought we more diligently to observe the things which we have heard, lest perhaps we should let them slip. 2 For if the word, spoken by angels, became steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward: 3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? which having begun to be declared by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. 4 God also bearing them witness by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will

Greek Orthodox Church In America Daily Readings For Monday, 31 January

From The Greek Orthodox Arch-Diocese of America:

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Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Monday, January 31, 2011



Readings for today:



St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 12:27-31; 13:1-8

Matthew 10:1, 5-8



Feasts and Saints celebrated today:



Cyrus & John the Unmercenaries

Holy Women Martyrs Theodote, Theoktiste and Eudoxia

Our Righteous Father Arsenius of Parus





Epistle Reading



The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 12:27-31; 13:1-8



Brethren, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And

God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets,

third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers,

administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all

prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts

of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But

earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more

excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have

not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have

prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I

have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am

nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be

burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind;

love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love

does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it

does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all

things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love

never ends.



(C) 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America



Gospel Reading



The reading is from Matthew 10:1, 5-8



At that time, Jesus called to him his twelve disciples and gave them

authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease

and every infirmity. These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go

nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go

rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go,

saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the

dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying,

give without pay."



(C) 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America





Cyrus & John the Unmercenaries



Reading from the Synaxarion:



These Saints lived during the years of Diocletian. Saint Cyrus was from

Alexandria, and Saint John was from Edessa of Mesopotamia. Because of the

persecution of that time, Cyrus fled to the Gulf of Arabia, where there was a

small community of monks. John, who was a soldier, heard of Cyrus' fame

and came to join him. Henceforth, they passed their life working

every virtue, and healing every illness and disease freely by the grace

of Christ; hence their title of "Unmercenaries." They heard that a

certain woman, named Athanasia, had been apprehended together with her

three daughters, Theodora, Theoctiste, and Eudoxia, and taken to the

tribunal for their confession of the Faith. Fearing lest the tender young

maidens be terrified by the torments and renounce Christ, they went to

strengthen them in their contest in martyrdom; therefore they too were

seized. After Cyrus and John and those sacred women had been greatly

tormented, all were beheaded in the year 292. Their tomb became a renowned

shrine in Egypt, and a place of universal pilgrimage. It was found in

the area of the modern day resort near Alexandria named Abu Kyr.



Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

Since Thou hast given us the miracles of Thy holy Martyrs as an

invincible battlement, by their entreaties scatter the counsels of the

heathen, O Christ our God, and strenghten the faith of Orthodox

Christians, since Thou alone art good and the Friend of man.



Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Apolytikion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery



German Evangelical Daily Readings (EVANGELIUM TAG FÜR TAG) For Monday, 31 January (Montag, 31 Januar)

From:  http://www.evangeliumtagfuertag.org/



EVANGELIUM TAG FÜR TAG


«Herr, zu wem sollen wir gehen? Du hast Worte des ewigen Lebens.» Joh. 6,68







Montag, 31 Januar 2011



Montag der 4. Woche im Jahreskreis



Die Kirche gedenkt : Hl. Johannes Bosco

Montag, 31 Januar 2011


Hl. Johannes Bosco

Die anderen Heiligen des Tages...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Hl. Johannes Bosco



Priester, Ordensgründer



* 16. August 1815 in Becchi bei Turin in Italien

† 1888 in Turin in Italien



Johannes Bosco, 1815 als Sohn armer Bauersleute geboren, wurde unter großen Schwierigkeiten Priester (1841). „Ich werde mein Leben der Jugend weihen“, das stand für ihn fest. Seine große Liebe galt der Arbeiterjugend von Turin. Er gründete die „Fromme Gesellschaft vom heiligen Franz von Sales“ (Salesianer) und zusammen mit der hl. Maria Domenica Mazzarello die Kongregation der Mariahilf-Schwestern. Er hat entscheidend auf die Erneuerung des Bildungswesens in Italien und (seit 1875) in Südamerika eingewirkt. Seine Erziehungskunst beruhte auf charismatischer Begabung und Einfühlungskraft, verbunden mit einer klaren Erkenntnis der Not seiner Zeit und einer aus tiefem Glauben erwachsenen Liebe zur Jugend. Er starb am 31. Januar 1888 in Turin und wurde 1934 heilig gesprochen. „In seinem Leben war das Übernatürliche fast natürlich und das Außergewöhnliche gewöhnlich“ (Pius XI.).







„Das Beste

was wir auf der Welt tun können, ist:

Gutes tun, fröhlich sein

und die Spatzen pfeifen lassen.“ (Johannes Bosco)
http://www.erzabtei-beuron.de/schott/proprium/Januar31.htm
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2010



Zum Kommentar des heutigen Evangeliums :

Sel. Teresa von Kalkutta : "Der Mann, der zuvor von den Dämonen besessen war, bat Jesus, bei ihm bleiben zu dürfen"





Brief an die Hebräer 11,32-40.



Und was soll ich noch aufz?hlen? Die Zeit w?rde mir nicht reichen, wollte ich von Gideon reden, von Barak, Simson, Jiftach, David und von Samuel und den Propheten; sie haben aufgrund des Glaubens K?nigreiche besiegt, Gerechtigkeit ge?bt, Verhei?ungen erlangt, L?wen den Rachen gestopft, Feuersglut gel?scht; sie sind scharfen Schwertern entgangen; sie sind stark geworden, als sie schwach waren; sie sind im Krieg zu Helden geworden und haben feindliche Heere in die Flucht geschlagen. Frauen haben ihre Toten durch Auferstehung zur?ckerhalten. Einige nahmen die Freilassung nicht an und lie?en sich foltern, um eine bessere Auferstehung zu erlangen. Andere haben Spott und Schl?ge erduldet, ja sogar Ketten und Kerker. Gesteinigt wurden sie, verbrannt, zers?gt, mit dem Schwert umgebracht; sie zogen in Schafspelzen und Ziegenfellen umher, notleidend, bedr?ngt, mi?handelt. Sie, deren die Welt nicht wert war, irrten umher in W?sten und Gebirgen, in den H?hlen und Schluchten des Landes. Doch sie alle, die aufgrund des Glaubens (von Gott) besonders anerkannt wurden, haben das Verhei?ene nicht erlangt, weil Gott erst f?r uns etwas Besseres vorgesehen hatte; denn sie sollten nicht ohne uns vollendet werden.



Psalm 31,20.21.23.24.



Wie groß ist deine Güte, Herr, die du bereithältst für alle, die dich fürchten und ehren; du erweist sie allen, die sich vor den Menschen zu dir flüchten.

Du beschirmst sie im Schutz deines Angesichts vor dem Toben der Menschen. Wie unter einem Dach bewahrst du sie vor dem Gezänk der Zungen.

Ich aber dachte in meiner Angst: Ich bin aus deiner Nähe verstoßen. Doch du hast mein lautes Flehen gehört, als ich zu dir um Hilfe rief.

Liebt den Herrn, all seine Frommen! Seine Getreuen behütet der Herr, doch den Hochmütigen vergilt er ihr Tun mit vollem Maß.





Evangelium nach Markus 5,1-20.



Sie kamen an das andere Ufer des Sees, in das Gebiet von Gerasa. Als er aus dem Boot stieg, lief ihm ein Mann entgegen, der von einem unreinen Geist besessen war. Er kam von den Grabhöhlen, in denen er lebte. Man konnte ihn nicht bändigen, nicht einmal mit Fesseln. Schon oft hatte man ihn an Händen und Füßen gefesselt, aber er hatte die Ketten gesprengt und die Fesseln zerrissen; niemand konnte ihn bezwingen. Bei Tag und Nacht schrie er unaufhörlich in den Grabhöhlen und auf den Bergen und schlug sich mit Steinen. Als er Jesus von weitem sah, lief er zu ihm hin, warf sich vor ihm nieder und schrie laut: Was habe ich mit dir zu tun, Jesus, Sohn des höchsten Gottes? Ich beschwöre dich bei Gott, quäle mich nicht! Jesus hatte nämlich zu ihm gesagt: Verlaß diesen Mann, du unreiner Geist! Jesus fragte ihn: Wie heißt du? Er antwortete: Mein Name ist Legion; denn wir sind viele. Und er flehte Jesus an, sie nicht aus dieser Gegend zu verbannen. Nun weidete dort an einem Berghang gerade eine große Schweineherde. Da baten ihn die Dämonen: Laß uns doch in die Schweine hineinfahren! Jesus erlaubte es ihnen. Darauf verließen die unreinen Geister den Menschen und fuhren in die Schweine, und die Herde stürzte sich den Abhang hinab in den See. Es waren etwa zweitausend Tiere, und alle ertranken. Die Hirten flohen und erzählten alles in der Stadt und in den Dörfern. Darauf eilten die Leute herbei, um zu sehen, was geschehen war. Sie kamen zu Jesus und sahen bei ihm den Mann, der von der Legion Dämonen besessen gewesen war. Er saß ordentlich gekleidet da und war wieder bei Verstand. Da fürchteten sie sich. Die, die alles gesehen hatten, berichteten ihnen, was mit dem Besessenen und mit den Schweinen geschehen war. Darauf baten die Leute Jesus, ihr Gebiet zu verlassen. Als er ins Boot stieg, bat ihn der Mann, der zuvor von den Dämonen besessen war, bei ihm bleiben zu dürfen. Aber Jesus erlaubte es ihm nicht, sondern sagte: Geh nach Hause, und berichte deiner Familie alles, was der Herr für dich getan und wie er Erbarmen mit dir gehabt hat. Da ging der Mann weg und verkündete in der ganzen Dekapolis, was Jesus für ihn getan hatte, und alle staunten.



Auszug aus der liturgischen Übersetzung der Bibel







Kommentar des heutigen Evangeliums :



Sel. Teresa von Kalkutta (1910-1997), Gründerin der Missionarinnen der Nächstenliebe

No Greater Love





"Der Mann, der zuvor von den Dämonen besessen war, bat Jesus, bei ihm bleiben zu dürfen"





Wir sind dazu berufen, die Welt zu lieben. Und Gott hat die Welt so sehr geliebt, dass er ihr Jesus geschenkt hat (Joh 3, 16). Heute liebt er die Welt so sehr, dass er ihr uns schenkt: dich und mich, damit wir seine Liebe seien, sein Mitgefühl, seine Gegenwart, und zwar durch ein Leben des Gebets, des Opfers, der Hingabe. Die Antwort, die Gott von dir erwartet, ist, dass du kontemplativ wirst, dass du kontemplativ bist.



Nehmen wir Jesus beim Wort und seien wir kontemplativ mitten in der Welt; denn wenn wir Glauben haben, sind wir in seiner unaufhörlichen Gegenwart. Durch Kontemplation schöpft die Seele unmittelbar im Herzen Gottes die Gnaden, die zu verteilen Aufgabe des tätigen Lebens ist. Unsere Existenz muss gebunden sein an den lebendigen Christus, der in uns ist. Wenn wir nicht in der Gegenwart Gottes leben, können wir nicht Bestand haben.



Was ist Kontemplation? Das Leben Jesu leben. Das verstehe ich unter Kontemplation. Jesus lieben, sein Leben in unserem Herzen leben, unser Leben in seinem Herzen leben. Kontemplation bedeutet nicht, dass wir uns in ein dunkles Kämmerlein zurückziehen, sondern dass wir Jesus erlauben, in uns seine Passion zu leben, seine Liebe, seine Demut; mit uns zu beten, mit uns zu sein und durch uns andere heilig zu machen. Unser Leben und unsere Kontemplation sind eins. Das ist nicht eine Frage des Tuns, sondern des Seins. Hier handelt es sich in der Tat um die vollkommene Freude, die der Heilige Geist unserem Geist erwirkt. Er flößt uns die Fülle Gottes ein und sendet uns hinaus in die ganze Schöpfung als seine persönliche Botschaft der Liebe (Mk 16, 15).



(Dutch) Reformed Church In America Daily Message For Monday, 31 January

From The Reformed Church In America:


January 31 Prayer Request

Pray for RCWS partners as they continue to work in Haiti with communities and populations that still need so much help.



Today's Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-9a

Isaiah 58:1-9a


False and True Worship58Shout out, do not hold back!

Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

Announce to my people their rebellion,

to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet day after day they seek me

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that practised righteousness

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgements,

they delight to draw near to God.

3 ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,

and oppress all your workers.

4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today

will not make your voice heard on high.

5 Is such the fast that I choose,

a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,

and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?





6 Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover them,

and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up quickly;

your vindicator* shall go before you,

the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.

9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.





If you remove the yoke from among you,

the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

One Chance, One Encounter

From Tricycle:

Home › Magazine › Spring 2002 › One Chance, One Encounterdharma talk


One Chance, One Encounter

Can we be present to each moment of our lives? Soko Morinaga Roshi teaches us a liberating presence in play.Soko Morinaga Roshi

6 Twitter 143 Facebook 0 Email I would like to tell you a story which has moved me very deeply. It is the story of a woman, Miss Okamoto, who stayed by my teacher’s side for forty years, up until his death.



Miss Okamoto was a very talented woman who graduated in the Taisho Era from Ochanomizu Girls’ College. She was active in the field of young women’s education in both Tokyo and Kyushu until, at the age of forty, she entered the temple as a disciple of Master Zuigan. She trained as a layperson, never shaving her head and taking the vows of a nun, but also never wearing makeup as an ordinary laywoman. She carried out all her affairs tidily attired in baggy work pants.





Once Chance
It was not her intention to become a great monk, so rather than focus on the training itself, she worked hard to make life smooth for the master whom she so respected. By washing clothes, cooking, and raising fresh vegetables Miss Okamoto ensured that he would always be available to teach the dharma to others. Anyone who looked at Miss Okamoto would see a thoroughly self-sacrificing person.



Master Zuigan died at the age of eighty-seven, when Miss Okamoto was sixty years old. When the final ceremony of the forty-nine-day bereavement period was concluded, she packed up her belongings and, declaring that she did not wish to be a burden to me, left the temple. She moved into the rented cottage of a different temple, where she continued the live out her years of retirement, under no one’s supervision, just as she had lived when Master Zuigan was alive.



Miss Okamoto rose every morning at 4:15 and, although she had made no formal commitment to do so, cleaned the temple gardens surrounding her rented room. She cultivated vacant land and planted vegetables which she would pickle to offer the novice monks in training under me, to share with visitors, and to offer at the Buddha altar.



When she was already into her seventies, feeling that she wanted to improve herself in whatever way she could, Miss Okamoto began to come inside after a day of sweeping, pulling weeds, and gardening. At other times, remembering the lectures she had heard Roshi give on various Zen works, she would open koan collections like the Blue Cliff Record and The Gateless Gate. Such was the life Miss Okamoto led.



She was a little old lady, short, with a round boyish face, but her exceptionally strict, upright lifestyle had given rise to something forbidding in Miss Okamoto, and the young novice monks were never pleased when they were sent to her place on an errand.



I visited Miss Okamoto monthly, and she always seemed eager for these visits. But one day, she sent a message to the effect that she wanted me to call on her right away as she had something urgent to talk to me about.



“Here for the past half year, I’ve been suffering intense physical weariness,” she began when I visited her. “Thinking that I had reached the age when I was growing dull, I tried to whip myself along, to keep going, but I just wasn’t getting any better.



“Finally,” she explained, “there seemed to be nothing to do but ask someone to take me to see a doctor. Although the doctor didn’t say it in so many words, it seems that I have cancer. Since I found this out, I have been afraid of dying.”



Her words were an echo of those of my old schoolteacher. But not only was Miss Okamoto afraid of dying, she was also ashamed of that fear. She felt it disgraceful to fear death after having been allowed to train for so long under her teacher. She felt tremendous gratitude toward the Zen sect and toward the Roshi, and it was unbearable for her to think that those around her might feel Zen practice is useless since it apparently does not even help one to overcome apprehension in the face of death.



“What in the world is the problem with the way I have practiced up until now - that death could be this frightening? Please tell me how I have been wrong in my practice,” she beseeched, opening up to me as if I were her own son.



Although Miss Okamoto was twenty-four years my elder, her earnest confession prompted me, despite her years, to bluntly call to her attention something in her manner which had already been weighing on my mind.



This woman had led a flawless, commendable life, but she had always stoically gritted her teeth in an effort “to do good, to avoid doing evil.” Sharply distinguishing between “good” and “bad,” forever sizing up and passing judgment on the situation, she went about her endeavors to “do better,” but always with her teeth clenched fast. But let me be very clear about this: The kind of effort in which one bisects good and bad, and then chooses one over the other with the intent to stack up causes for positive results does not in itself produce peace of mind.


As I explained to Miss Okamoto, you come out from your mother’s womb and go into your coffin. That time in between, you call life, and perhaps you think of going into your coffin as death. But true existence is birth and death, repeating itself, instant by instant. If you look at a flame, it seems to burn continuously and give off constant light. In actuality, the wax is burning down bit by bit, and the wick which blazes in this instant exhausts itself, passing the flame further along.




Our lives appear to be unbroken blocks of seventy or eighty continuous years, but, actually, . . . when you maintain the straightforward frankness of your own mind as it comes to life each instant, even without effort, even without training, you are beautifully born each instant. You die with each instant, and go on to be born again, instant by instant.



As I told Miss Okamoto, when you go to the kitchen to prepare dinner, be born in the kitchen. When you finish there, die. Then be born again at the dining table as you eat your dinner and, when you finish eating, die there. Be born in the garden, and sweep with your broom. When you get into bed at night, die there. And when daylight comes, and you awaken in your bed, be born anew. If you have cancer, be born with cancer.



Always now—just now—come into being. Always now - just now - give yourself to death. Practicing this truth is Zen practice.



I have seen many people practice. But I do not know of anyone who so splendidly, so thoroughly put my instructions into practice as did Miss Okamoto. She complied as docilely as a lamb. It wasn’t even ten days before her rigid countenance had softened into a baby face, into the face of a sweet old lady. She had left behind the lifestyle in which she had to grit her teeth and try to live right.



Miss Okamoto’s disease grew progressively worse, and she finally had to be hospitalized. I remember that when I called on her, the doctors and nurses all remarked that thought they had worked in the hospital for many years, they had never encountered a patient like this one. By the time Miss Okamoto entered the hospital, she was greeting everybody, everything, every scene in the spirit of “one chance, one encounter.”



Most people interpret this “one chance, one encounter” as applying to some very special occurrence, a once-in-a-lifetime magnificent encounter. The phrase calls to mind, for example, a tea ceremony, which happens as it happens only one time. It is generally reasoned that something which happens only once in a lifetime, a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, has to be an exceedingly special occasion, and the expression is commonly limited to this usage.



In its true sense, however, “one chance, one encounter” may occur whenever one encounters a stone, when one comes upon a weed, when one is cleaning the toilet or cooking rice. It refers to a favorability or adversity, in which there is absolutely no notion of escape. “One chance, one encounter” is to wholly melt within each one occurrence, and this is just the way Miss Okamoto saw her life out.



Unfortunately, I had agreed to journey to England and the United States again at that particular time, and I left feeling uneasy. I instructed my disciples to care for Miss Okamoto during my absence, but she passed away without waiting for my return. When I came back, I heard from my oldest disciple, the monk who had last attended her, about the final moments before her death. Although this was a man who seldom allowed any expression to cross his face, tears streamed from his eyes as he told the story.



Before Miss Okamoto died, she said to him, “Looking back, I have led a pretty stuffy life all these years. So I think I’ll just take a ball and go out and play in the woods now.” These were her last words.



We placed a pretty ball, made of colored threads, inside her grave.



I hope that you will not merely take Miss Okamoto’s final words for their emotional or their literary appeal. When I heard what she had said at the last, I felt joy from the bottom of my heart. Joy, because I was confident that in her living and in her dying, Miss Okamoto had literally reached a state was can call the “samadhi of play.”



If a person is working for wages, shoveling sand onto the bed of a truck with a shovel, they may get tired. Should someone happen along and offer to help out, they will most likely be glad to hand over their shovel. But suppose a child is playing in a sand pile, scooping sand into a bucket. Should someone walk up and offer to take over for a while, that child would balk at such foolishness. “Why should I want you to take over when I’m having so much fun?”



Even the most fleeting of activities, such as the business of preparing a meal, can be the samadhi of play. When you throw your heart into preparing a fine meal, which you artistically arrange on the plates and serve up, that food is swiftly devoured and you are left with dirty dishes. To carry on the samadhi of play does not only refer to creating a work of art which might grace a museum for a few hundred years, but to the most everyday of everyday affairs one performs. The duties of housekeeping serve as a good example. In a never-ending cycle, we clean, and the house gets dirty again. We sweep, and the dust comes back. We wash clothes, and they get soiled again.



This is not only the case with housekeeping. Look closely and you see that these are the cirumstances of every human being on earth.



The samadhi of play is the state of mind in which one performs an activity without appraising its relative value, just as the child who plays in the sand would never dream of letting someone else take their place. It was with this mind that Miss Okamoto went out to the woods to play ball.



The samadhi of play is a state in which the heart transcends both the exhaustible dharmas and the inexhaustable dharmas. This is the dharma gate of liberation, the state of mind which is liberation from both the exhaustible and the inexhaustible.



There is within you eternal Buddha life. That Buddha life appears in form, being born and dying, instant by instant, emerging in constant succession in the samadhi of play. We can clearly say that the practice of this mind state is the satori state of Zen.



Within you there is eternal life. This life arises as form and continues, instant by instant, appearing and disappearing. Moreover, this flickering, appearing and disappearing, is not the flickering of a solidified individual self; it is the sparkling appearance and disappearance of a fusion of the self and its surroundings, in union.



This is what the founder of the Soto Zen school, Dogen Zenji, meant when he said that birth and death is the life of Buddha. Birth and death is the pulse of Buddha life.



Where there are one thousand human beings, within one thousand ways of living, one thousand buddhas are revealed. Buddha is revealed through mountains, valleys, trees, and grasses, through a multitude of phenomena. The heart that can be revered in whatever form we see, in whatever direction we look, this is the true heart of Buddhism, this is Buddha life. ▼



Soko Morinaga Roshi was one of Japan’s foremost Rinzai Zen masters. He served as the abbot of Daitokuji Monastery and the head of Hanazono University, one of the chief training universities for Buddhist monks in Japan. Morinaga Roshi died in 1995.



“The Samadhi of Play” is excerpted from Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity by Soko Morinaga Roshi, translated by Belenda Attaway Yamakawa. © 2001 by Wisdom Publications. Reprinted by arrangement.



Image: "My Nanny Dudu" by Jacques Henri Lartigue. © Ministere de la Culture-France/Association des Amis de Jacques Henri Lartigue (AAJHL)




Sunday, January 30, 2011

Roman Catholic Daily Readings For Monday, 31 January

From USCCB, CNA, and Catholic Online:

Daily Readings:


Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated:


Scriptural Readings:

First Reading - Heb 11:32-40

32 And what shall I yet say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, Barac, Samson, Jephthe, David, Samuel, and the prophets: 33 Who by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, recovered strength from weakness, became valiant in battle, put to flight the armies of foreigners: 35 Women received their dead raised to life again. But others were racked, not accepting deliverance, that they might find a better resurrection. 36 And others had trial of mockeries and stripes, moreover also of bands and prisons. 37 They were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted: 38 Of whom the world was not worthy; wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth. 39 And all these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not the promise; 40 God providing some better thing for us, that they should not be perfected without us
 

Psalm - Ps 31:20-24

20 O how great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear thee! Which thou hast wrought for them that hope in thee, in the sight of the sons of men. 21 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face, from the disturbance of men. Thou shalt protect them in thy tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues.  22 Blessed be the Lord, for he hath shewn his wonderful mercy to me in a fortified city. 23 But I said in the excess of my mind: I am cast away from before thy eyes. Therefore thou hast heard the voice of my prayer, when I cried to thee. 24 O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord will require truth, and will repay them abundantly that act proudly. [25] Do ye manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all ye that hope in the Lord
 

Gospel - Mk 5:1-20

1 And they came over the strait of the sea into the country of the Gerasens. 2 And as he went out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the monuments a man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling in the tombs, and no man now could bind him, not even with chains. 4 For having been often bound with fetters and chains, he had burst the chains, and broken the fetters in pieces, and no one could tame him. 5 And he was always day and night in the monuments and in the mountains, crying and cutting himself with stones. 6 And seeing Jesus afar off, he ran and adored him. 7 And crying with a loud voice, he said: What have I to do with thee, Jesus the Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him: Go out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him: What is thy name? And he saith to him: My name is Legion, for we are many. 10 And he besought him much, that he would not drive him away out of the country. 11 And there was there near the mountain a great herd of swine, feeding. 12 And the spirits besought him, saying: Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And Jesus immediately gave them leave. And the unclean spirits going out, entered into the swine: and the herd with great violence was carried headlong into the sea, being about two thousand, and were stifled in the sea.14 And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the fields. And they went out to see what was done: 15 And they came to Jesus, and they see him that was troubled with the devil, sitting, clothed, and well in his wits, and they were afraid. 16 And they that had seen it, told them, in what manner he had been dealt with who had the devil; and concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him that he would depart from their coasts. 18 And when he went up into the ship, he that had been troubled with the devil, began to beseech him that he might be with him. 19 And he admitted him not, but saith to him: Go into thy house to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had mercy on thee. 20 And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men wondered

Greek Orthodox Church In America Daily Readings For Sunday, 30 January

From The Greek Orthodox Arch-Diocese of America:

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +




Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Sunday, January 30, 2011



Readings for today:



Mark 16:9-20

St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 13:7-16

Matthew 5:14-19



Feasts and Saints celebrated today:



Synaxis of The Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, & John Chrysostom

Hippolytos, Pope of Rome

Athanasia the Martyr & her 3 daughters





Orthros Gospel Reading



The reading is from Mark 16:9-20



At that time, Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, and he

appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast seven demons. She

went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept.

But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they

would not believe it.



After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were

walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they

did not believe them.



Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he

upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had

not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to

them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole

creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does

not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those

who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak

in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any

deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the

sick, and they will recover."



So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up

into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went

forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and

confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.



(C) 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America



Epistle Reading



The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 13:7-16



Brethren, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God;

consider the outcome of their lives, and imitate their faith. Jesus

Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Do not be led away

by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be

strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents.

We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no

right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought

into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are

burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in

order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us

go forth to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For

here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to

God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not

neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are

pleasing to God.



(C) 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America



Gospel Reading



The reading is from Matthew 5:14-19



The Lord said to his disciples, "You are the light of the world. A

city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it

under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good

works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Think not that I

have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to

abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven

and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law

until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of

these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the

kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called

great in the kingdom of heaven."



(C) 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America





Synaxis of The Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, & John Chrysostom



Reading from the Synaxarion:



This common feast of these three teachers was instituted a little

before the year 1100, during the reign of the Emperor Alexis I Comnenus,

because of a dispute and strife that arose among the notable and virtuous

men of that time. Some of them preferred Basil, while others

preferred Gregory, and yet others preferred John Chrysostom, quarreling

among themselves over which of the three was the greatest.

Furthermore, each party, in order to distinguish itself from the others,

assumed the name of its preferred Saint; hence, they called themselves

Basilians, Gregorians, or Johannites. Desiring to bring an end to the

contention, the three Saints appeared together to the saintly John Mavropous,

a monk who had been ordained Bishop of Euchaita, a city of Asia

Minor, they revealed to him that the glory they have at the throne of

God is equal, and told him to compose a common service for the three

of them, which he did with great skill and beauty. Saint John of

Euchaita (celebrated Oct. 5) is also the composer of the Canon to the

Guardian Angel, the Protector of a Man's Life. In his old age, he retired

from his episcopal see and again took up the monastic life in a

monastery in Constantinople. He reposed during the reign of the

aforementioned Emperor Alexis Comnenus (1081-1118).



Apolytikion in the First Tone

The three most great luminaries of the Three-Sun Divinity have

illumined all of the world with the rays of doctrines divine and true; they

are the sweetly-flowing rivers of wisdom, who with godly knowledge

have watered all creation in clear and mighty streams: The great and

sacred Basil, and the Theologian, wise Gregory, together with the

renowned John, the famed Chrysostom of golden speech. Let us all who love

their divinely-wise words come together, honouring them with hymns; for

ceaselessly they offer entreaty for us to the Trinity.



Kontakion in the Second Tone

Receive, O Lord, the Sacred Heralds who preached God, the pinnacle of

Teachers, unto the enjoyment of Your riches and rest. You have received

their labors and their suffering as being above and beyond all fruitful

offering. For You alone glorify Your Saints.



Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Apolytikion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Kontakion courtesy of Narthex Press



German Evangelical Daily Readings (EVANGELIUM TAG FÜR TAG) For Sunday, 30 January (Sonntag, 30 Januar)

From:  http://www.evangeliumtagfuertag.org/



EVANGELIUM TAG FÜR TAG


«Herr, zu wem sollen wir gehen? Du hast Worte des ewigen Lebens.» Joh. 6,68







Sonntag, 30 Januar 2011



4. Sonntag im Jahreskreis



Heute: 4. Sonntag im Jahreskreis



Zum Kommentar des heutigen Evangeliums :

Johannes Tauler : „Selig die Trauernden, denn sie werden getröstet werden“





Buch Zefanja 2,3.3,12-13.



Sucht den Herrn, ihr Gedemütigten im Land, die ihr nach dem Recht des Herrn lebt. Sucht Gerechtigkeit, sucht Demut! Vielleicht bleibt ihr geborgen am Tag des Zornes des Herrn. Und ich lasse in deiner Mitte übrig ein demütiges und armes Volk, das seine Zuflucht sucht beim Namen des Herrn. Der Rest von Israel wird kein Unrecht mehr tun und wird nicht mehr lügen, in ihrem Mund findet man kein unwahres Wort mehr. Ja, sie gehen friedlich auf die Weide, und niemand schreckt sie auf, wenn sie ruhen.



Psalm 146,7.8-9.10.



Recht verschafft er den Unterdrückten, den Hungernden gibt er Brot; der Herr befreit die Gefangenen.

Der Herr öffnet den Blinden die Augen, er richtet die Gebeugten auf.

Der Herr beschützt die Fremden und verhilft den Waisen und Witwen zu ihrem Recht. Der Herr liebt die Gerechten, doch die Schritte der Frevler leitet er in die Irre.

Der Herr ist König auf ewig, dein Gott, Zion, herrscht von Geschlecht zu Geschlecht. Halleluja!





Erster Brief des Apostel Paulus an die Korinther 1,26-31.



Seht doch auf eure Berufung, Brüder! Da sind nicht viele Weise im irdischen Sinn, nicht viele Mächtige, nicht viele Vornehme, sondern das Törichte in der Welt hat Gott erwählt, um die Weisen zuschanden zu machen, und das Schwache in der Welt hat Gott erwählt, um das Starke zuschanden zu machen. Und das Niedrige in der Welt und das Verachtete hat Gott erwählt: das, was nichts ist, um das, was etwas ist, zu vernichten, damit kein Mensch sich rühmen kann vor Gott. Von ihm her seid ihr in Christus Jesus, den Gott für uns zur Weisheit gemacht hat, zur Gerechtigkeit, Heiligung und Erlösung. Wer sich also rühmen will, der rühme sich des Herrn; so heißt es schon in der Schrift.



Evangelium nach Matthäus 5,1-12.



Als Jesus die vielen Menschen sah, stieg er auf einen Berg. Er setzte sich, und seine Jünger traten zu ihm. Dann begann er zu reden und lehrte sie. Er sagte: Selig, die arm sind vor Gott; denn ihnen gehört das Himmelreich. Selig die Trauernden; denn sie werden getröstet werden. Selig, die keine Gewalt anwenden; denn sie werden das Land erben. Selig, die hungern und dürsten nach der Gerechtigkeit; denn sie werden satt werden. Selig die Barmherzigen; denn sie werden Erbarmen finden. Selig, die ein reines Herz haben; denn sie werden Gott schauen. Selig, die Frieden stiften; denn sie werden Söhne Gottes genannt werden. Selig, die um der Gerechtigkeit willen verfolgt werden; denn ihnen gehört das Himmelreich. Selig seid ihr, wenn ihr um meinetwillen beschimpft und verfolgt und auf alle mögliche Weise verleumdet werdet. Freut euch und jubelt: Euer Lohn im Himmel wird groß sein. Denn so wurden schon vor euch die Propheten verfolgt.



Auszug aus der liturgischen Übersetzung der Bibel







Kommentar des heutigen Evangeliums :



Johannes Tauler ( um 1300-1361), Dominikaner in Straßburg

Predigt 71, zu Allerheiligen





„Selig die Trauernden, denn sie werden getröstet werden“





„Als er die vielen Menschen sah, stieg er auf einen Berg... dann begann er zu reden und lehrte sie.“ Der Berg, auf den Jesus stieg, war seine eigene Glückseligkeit und seine Einheit im Wesen mit dem Vater. Scharen von Menschen folgten ihm, nämlich die große Zahl der Heiligen, deren Fest wir heute feiern. Sie alle folgten ihm nach, jeder entsprechend der Berufung, in die ihn Gott gerufen hatte. Darin müssen wir sie nachahmen: jeder muss vor allem darauf achten, wozu er berufen ist, um sicher sein zu können, wozu ihn Gott beruft. Dann muss er diesem Ruf folgen.



Auf dem Berg ergriff Jesus das Wort und verkündete die acht Seligpreisungen. „Selig, die arm sind vor Gott; denn ihnen gehört das Himmelreich.“ Hier ist in erster Linie die Tugend der geistigen Armut gemeint, weil sie Anfang und Voraussetzung aller Vollkommenheit ist. Von welcher Seite aus man das Problem auch betrachtet, es geht immer darum: Wenn Gott sein Werk in der Tiefe des Menschenherzens vollbringen soll, dann muss sein Innerstes entblößt, entbunden, frei, arm und abgeschnitten sein von allem Eigenen. Es muss befreit sein von jeglicher persönlichen Bindung. Nur dann kann Gott sich darin zu Hause fühlen...



„Selig die Sanftmütigen; denn sie werden das Land erben.“ Das ist der nächste Schritt; denn durch echte Armut wird man zwar frei von Fesseln; aber mit Sanftmut dringt man weiter in die Tiefe vor, und alle Bitterkeit, Reizbarkeit, Unbesonnenheit verliert sich... Für den Sanftmütigen ist nichts bitter. Für solche, die gut sind, ist doch auch alles gut: das Gute kommt aus ihrem guten und reinen Innersten... Der Sanftmütige erbt das Land, er lebt in Frieden, was immer ihm auch zustößt. Wenn du dich nicht sanftmütig verhältst, verlierst du diese Tugend und damit deinen Frieden, und man wird dich einen Griesgram nennen können und dich mit einem bissigen Hund vergleichen.



„Selig die Trauernden...“ Wer sind die Trauernden? Einmal sind es solche, die leiden; zum anderen sind es Menschen, die wegen ihrer Sünden traurig sind. Die echten Freunde Gottes – und damit die glücklichsten von allen – haben aufgehört, wegen ihrer Sünden traurig zu sein... Und doch ist ihnen Traurigkeit nicht fremd: sie sind traurig wegen der Sünden und Fehler ihres Nächsten... So trauern die wahren Freunde Gottes wegen der Verblendung der Welt und ihrer Sündennot.



Bursting The Bubble Of Fear

From Tricycle:

Home › Magazine › Spring 2002 › Bursting the Bubble of Fearon practice


Bursting the Bubble of Fear

Haven't we always been afraid? So now we know it. Ezra Bayda walks us through age-old fear and shows us what it really is. Ezra Bayda

© Alfred StieglitzThe feeling that things are out of sync and that there is too much to do is not new. As Buddha pointed out over 2,600 years ago, we'll always have to deal with the fact that life entails pain and suffering. Perhaps it's that we don't really want to have any problems that makes Our current time seem so full of distress.



Many people come to meditation practice with the expectation that it will calm them and relieve their stress. Certainly meditation can do this to some extent; even the most superficial meditation practices can induce feelings of calmness. However, when we're knee-deep in emotional distress, we're fortunate if we can remember to practice at all.



When the clarity of practice becomes obscured by the dark and swirling energy of emotional distress, it is useful to have some clear and concise reminders to bring us back to reality. The first reminder is to awaken aspiration. On an elementary level, to awaken aspiration means simply that we remember to practice. Once we remember to practice, to awaken aspiration means that we see our particular distress as our path. Instead of seeing our distress as the enemy, as something to get rid of; instead of giving it juice by solidifying the thoughts around it into the heaviness and drama of "me," we learn to view distress as our opportunity to see and to open. We relate to it as our path to awakening.



When we find ourselves in a mess, we might have the thought "This isn't how life is supposed to be." When life doesn't fit our picture, we usually feel that something is wrong. But it is not so much that something is wrong as it is that we're relating to life from the narrow, fear-based perspective of "I want." What we want is to feel good, and when our emotional distress does not feel good, we almost instinctively move away from it. Our discomfort generates fear, and in that fear there is even more discomfort. No wonder we tend to see distress as the enemy, as something to get rid of.



We have to turn our upside-down view right-side up to understand what it means to see difficulties as our path. The main issue is no longer just about whether we feel good, or whether we like what is happening. The main issue is to be more awake, to learn what we have to learn



to stop holding back our hearts in fear. This doesn't mean that we have to like what is on our plate-what it means is that the willingness to open to life's difficulties is not dependent on having to like them.



The second reminder is to awaken curiosity, asking the practice question, "What is this?" This is not an expression of idle curiosity, nor is it an analytical exploration. It's awakening the desire to know the truth of the moment through experiencing the physical reality of our being. We cannot experience physical reality as long as we're blaming, wallowing in "poor me," trying to escape, or giving credence to powerful thoughts such as "This isn't fair" and "I can't do this." The thought realm is where we stay stuck; it's where things become solid, dark, and unworkable. In awakening curiosity, we retum over and over again to the bodily experience of the moment, to the physical "whatness" of our experience, which is movable, light, and workable.



Several years ago, I was faced with an alarming reading on a screening test for prostate cancer. After further testing, I felt a great deal of fear while waiting for the results. I practiced staying with the body, asking over and over, "What is this?" The combination of fear and self-pity was powerful, as was the desire to escape, but my continuous effort to retum to the physical reality of the moment began to undercut the solidity of my fear. The question "What is this?" worked like a laser in focusing on the experience of fear itself. In a moment of insight, I realized that none of what I feared was happening now, nor had it ever happened! There was no real pain other than that generated by my thoughts. This realization effectively burst the bubble of my fears. The insight came not from thinking, but from staying with the "whatness" of the moment. It came from being curious about reality.



The third reminder in working with distress is to awaken humor, or at least some wider perspective. Any time we're obsessing over something that's happening mainly in our thoughts, it is helpful to remember Mark Twain's words: "I'm a very old man. I've had lots of problems. Most of them never happened."



One way to broaden our perspective is to see the difficulties as just another aspect of our conditioning playing itself out. When we remember this we can say to ourselves, "Here it comes again; what will it be like this time?" This is not a trick to avoid facing our issues; rather, it is a means of getting just enough perspective to be able to enter the difficulty without being overwhelmed by it. Once when my Pandora's box was opening wide, I went to my teacher, Joko Beck, to describe what was happening. I felt dark and grim, and was embarrassed to reveal that I was experiencing so much fear. She smiled at me and said, "That's pretty interesting. Let's look at this." I got the sense that it wasn't me we were talking about, but just "stuff." Here was a wider perspective. It's not that the fears were an illusion and could therefore be ignored, but that they were simply my particular conditioning. Putting them in this context allowed me to look more lightly at "my fears."



The fourth reminder is to awaken lovingkindness. This is the ability to bring nonjudgmental awareness from the heart to the unwanted aspects of "me." This reminder can't be overemphasized. It's so natural to want to confirm what is most negative about ourselves that we don't even think about activating compassion or kindness. In fact, much of the heaviness of our distress comes from the belief that we should be different. Especially after practicing for a few years, we think we shouldn't still be so reactive. We think we should be beyond our conditioning. But practice doesn't work that way. Yet when we soften our self-judgment with lovingkindness, the sense of drama and heaviness lightens considerably.



Sometimes when emotional distress is particularly powerful, nothing we've learned about practicing with distress seems pertinent. Dense and intense emotional reactions can leave us feeling confused and overwhelmed. In these darkest moments, the practice is to bring awareness to the center of the chest, breathing the painful emotions, via the in-breath, directly into the heartspace. It's as if we're breathing the swirling physical sensations right into the heart. Then, on the out-breath, we simply exhale. We're not trying to do or change anything; we're simply allowing our heart center to become a wider container of awareness within which to experience distress.



Fear takes us to that point beyond which we think we can't go. Breathing into the center of the chest, taking that one breath directly into the heartspace, opening to the pain that feels like it's going to do us in, teaches us that it won't do us in. We begin to experience the spaciousness of the heart, where our harshest self-judgments and our darkest moods lighten up. We begin to understand that awareness heals; and to open to this healing, one more breath into the heartspace is all that is required.



To willingly reside in our distress, no longer resisting what is, is the real key to transformation. As painful as it may be to face our deepest fears, we do reach the point where it's more painful not to face them. This is a pivotal point in the practice life.



Feeling the limitations of our fears and breathing them into the heartspace allows us to penetrate the protective barriers that close us off. As we begin to move beyond the artificial construct that we call a "self'—the seat of all of our emotional distress—we enter into a wider container of awareness. We see that our emotional drama, however distressful, is still just thoughts, just memories, just sensations. Who we really are—our basic connectedness-is so much bigger than just this body, just this personal drama.



Seeing this bigger picture one time, two times, or even a dozen times, doesn't mean we'll no longer have emotional reactions. But keeping the bigger picture in view does help us keep from getting lost in our distress as quickly, as intensely, or for as long a time. We finally begin to understand and even believe that all of our stuff is workable. ▼



Ezra Bayda has been a Zen student since 1978. He currently leads a meditation group in Santa Rosa, CA, while continuing his studies with Joko Beck. "Bursting the Bubble of Fear" is excerpted from Being Zen, © March 2002 by Ezra Bayda. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc.



Image: "Later Lake George: Storm Over the Hill, 1921" by Alfred Stieglitz, used with the permission of Philadelphia Museum of Art: Alfred Stieglitz Collection.



Reformed Church In America Daily Message For Sunday, 30 January

From The Reformed Church In America:


January 30 Prayer Request

Pray for the mission and ministry of the Classis of Canadian Prairies.





Saturday, January 29, 2011

Poets, Sages, Authors, Painters, Prophets, Teachers, Mystics, Sculptors, Philosophers...

From Parabola:

Friday, January 28










Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas (Aquino, 1225 – Fossanova, March 7, 1274) was an Italian priest of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Order, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus (the Angelic Doctor) and Doctor Communis or Doctor Universalis (the Common or Universal Doctor). "Aquinas" is not a surname (hereditary surnames were not then in common use in Europe), but is a Latin adjective meaning "of Aquino", his place of birth. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology, which is named after him. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory.



Thomas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood. The works for which he is best-known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. One of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope Benedict XV declared: "The Church has declared Thomas' doctrines to be her own."







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Saturday, January 29











Emanuel Swedenborg

Emanuel Swedenborg (January 29, 1688 – March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741 at the age of fifty-three he entered into a spiritual phase in which he eventually began to experience dreams and visions beginning on Easter weekend April 6, 1744. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He claimed that the Lord had opened his eyes, so that from then on he could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk with angels, demons and other spirits. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he wrote and published 18 theological works, of which the best known was Heaven and Hell (1758), and several unpublished theological works.











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Monday, January 31









Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis.



Merton wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), which sent scores of disillusioned World War II veterans, students, and even teen-agers flocking to monasteries across the US, and was also featured in National Review's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century.





Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, D.T. Suzuki, the Japanese writer on the Zen tradition, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Merton has also been the subject of several biographies.





"To deliver oneself up, hand oneself over, entrust oneself completely to the silence of a wide landscape of woods and hill, or sea, or desert: to sit still while the sun comes up over the land and fills its silences with light. To pray and work in the morning and to labor in meditation in the evening when night falls upon that land and when the silence fills itself with darkness and with stars. This is a true and special vocation. There are few who are willing to belong completely to such silence, to let it soak into their bones, to breathe nothing but silence, to feed on silence, and to turn the very substance of their life into a living and vigilant silence."



—Thomas Merton







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Thursday, February 3









Simone Weil

Simone Weil (February 3, 1909 in Paris, France – August 24, 1943 in Ashford, Kent, England), was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.





"Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached"



—Simone Weil





Poems, Quotes, Paintings, Analects, Photographs, Aphorisms, Proverbs, Axioms...

From Parabola:

ARCS


Photo by Thomas Merton

Photograph by Thomas Merton. From louie, louie a blog devoted to exploring contemplative awareness in daily life, drawing from and with much discussion of the writings of Thomas Merton, aka "Father Louie". And thank you to the extraordinary blog, Couleurs for drawing my attention to it.





"One does not see anything until one sees its beauty."





—Oscar Wilde





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Edward Steichen "Pastoral - Moonlight", 1907

Photograph: Edward Steichen "Pastoral - Moonlight", 1907





"Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man."





—Edward Steichen





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Minor White, “Garage Door Rochester New York,” 1960

Photograph: Minor White, “Garage Door Rochester New York,” 1960



“The state of mind of a photographer while creating is a blank…For those who would equate “blank” with a kind of static emptiness, I must explain that this is a special kind of blank. It is a very active state of mind really, a very receptive state of mind, ready at an instant to grasp an image, yet with no image pre-formed in it at any time. We should note that the lack of a pre-formed pattern or preconceived idea of how anything ought to look is essential to this blank condition. Such a state of mind is not unlike a sheet of film itself - seemingly inert, yet so sensitive that a fraction of a second’s exposure conceives a life in it. (Not just life, but “a” life).



—Minor White, The Camera Mind and Eye





"As this issue of Parabola goes to press, Minor White, great teacher, great photographer, great friend, and co-founder of this magazine, went away from us and our concerns via that mysterious exit door from the house of life which lies at ...the end of all our corridors. During his life he taught hundreds of people to look, and some to see, with more than their physical eyes, and he continued this teaching to the very moment of his death.



Besides his photography, he had a genius for people; each one he knew felt his relationship with Minor was important, special, and the only one of its kind; and every one was right.



His body is buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, but no one who knew him will believe that that is where he stopped. As he used to end his letters: Many blessings"



--Parabola V1:3 - Initiation, 1976







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------







Caspar David Friedrich, "Evening"[1821]

Painting: Caspar David Friedrich, "Evening," 1821





Don't Go Back To Sleep



For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself.

From within, I couldn’t decide what to do.

Unable to see, I heard my name being called.

Then I walked outside.



The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don’t go back to sleep.



—Rumi





Greek Orthodox Church In America Daily Readings For Saturday, 29 January

From The Greek Orthodox Arch-Diocese of America:

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +




Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Saturday, January 29, 2011



Readings for today:



St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 10:32-38

Mark 9:33-41



Feasts and Saints celebrated today:



Removal of the Relics of Ignatios the God-bearer

Laurence the Recluse of the Kiev Caves





Epistle Reading



The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 10:32-38



Brethren, recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you

endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed

to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so

treated. For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully

accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you

yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not

throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have

need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what

is promised. "For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come

and shall not tarry; but my righteous one shall live by faith."



(C) 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America



Gospel Reading



The reading is from Mark 9:33-41



At that time, Jesus and his disciples came to Capernaum, and when he

was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the

way?" But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one

another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve; and

he said to them, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all

and servant of all." And he took a child, and put him in the midst

of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever

receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me,

receives not me but him who sent me." John said to him, "Teacher, we saw

a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because

he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for

no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to

speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us. For truly,

I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you

bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward."



(C) 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America





Removal of the Relics of Ignatios the God-bearer



Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

As a sharer of the ways and a successor to the throne of the

Apostles, O inspired of God, thou foundest discipline to be a means of

ascent to divine vision. Wherefore, having rightly divided the word of

truth, thou didst also contest for the Faith even unto blood, O

Hieromartyr Ignatios. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls be saved.



Kontakion in the Fourth Tone

Dawning from the East this day, divine Ignatius, that God-bearer praised

of all, hath made the whole creation bright with his wise teachings

of piety and is adorned with the beauty of martyrdom.





Apolytikion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Kontakion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery



German Evangelical Daily Readings (EVANGELIUM TAG FÜR TAG)For Saturday, 29 January (Samstag [Sonnabend], 29 Januar)

From:  http://www.evangeliumtagfuertag.org/



EVANGELIUM TAG FÜR TAG


«Herr, zu wem sollen wir gehen? Du hast Worte des ewigen Lebens.» Joh. 6,68







Samstag, 29 Januar 2011



Samstag der 3. Woche im Jahreskreis





Zum Kommentar des heutigen Evangeliums :

Hl. Augustinus : „Er gebot dem Wind und sprach zum See: Schweig, sei still.“





Brief an die Hebräer 11,1-2.8-19.



Glaube aber ist: Feststehen in dem, was man erhofft, ?berzeugtsein von Dingen, die man nicht sieht. Aufgrund dieses Glaubens haben die Alten ein ruhmvolles Zeugnis erhalten. Aufgrund des Glaubens gehorchte Abraham dem Ruf, wegzuziehen in ein Land, das er zum Erbe erhalten sollte; und er zog weg, ohne zu wissen, wohin er kommen w?rde. Aufgrund des Glaubens hielt er sich als Fremder im verhei?enen Land wie in einem fremden Land auf und wohnte mit Isaak und Jakob, den Miterben derselben Verhei?ung, in Zelten; denn er erwartete die Stadt mit den festen Grundmauern, die Gott selbst geplant und gebaut hat. Aufgrund des Glaubens empfing selbst Sara die Kraft, trotz ihres Alters noch Mutter zu werden; denn sie hielt den f?r treu, der die Verhei?ung gegeben hatte. So stammen denn auch von einem einzigen Menschen, dessen Kraft bereits erstorben war, viele ab: zahlreich wie die Sterne am Himmel und der Sand am Meeresstrand, den man nicht z?hlen kann. Voll Glauben sind diese alle gestorben, ohne das Verhei?ene erlangt zu haben; nur von fern haben sie es geschaut und gegr??t und haben bekannt, da? sie Fremde und G?ste auf Erden sind. Mit diesen Worten geben sie zu erkennen, da? sie eine Heimat suchen. H?tten sie dabei an die Heimat gedacht, aus der sie weggezogen waren, so w?re ihnen Zeit geblieben zur?ckzukehren; nun aber streben sie nach einer besseren Heimat, n?mlich der himmlischen. Darum sch?mt sich Gott ihrer nicht, er sch?mt sich nicht, ihr Gott genannt zu werden; denn er hat f?r sie eine Stadt vorbereitet. Aufgrund des Glaubens brachte Abraham den Isaak dar, als er auf die Probe gestellt wurde, und gab den einzigen Sohn dahin, er, der die Verhei?ungen empfangen hatte und zu dem gesagt worden war: Durch Isaak wirst du Nachkommen haben. Er verlie? sich darauf, da? Gott sogar die Macht hat, Tote zum Leben zu erwecken; darum erhielt er Isaak auch zur?ck. Das ist ein Sinnbild.



Lk. 1,69-70.71-72.73-75.



er hat uns einen starken Retter erweckt im Hause seines Knechtes David.

So hat er verheißen von alters her durch den Mund seiner heiligen Propheten.

Er hat uns errettet vor unseren Feinden und aus der Hand aller, die uns hassen;

er hat das Erbarmen mit den Vätern an uns vollendet und an seinen heiligen Bund gedacht,

an den Eid, den er unserm Vater Abraham geschworen hat;

er hat uns geschenkt, daß wir, aus Feindeshand befreit, ihm furchtlos dienen

in Heiligkeit und Gerechtigkeit vor seinem Angesicht all unsre Tage.





Evangelium nach Markus 4,35-41.



Am Abend dieses Tages sagte er zu ihnen: Wir wollen ans andere Ufer hinüberfahren. Sie schickten die Leute fort und fuhren mit ihm in dem Boot, in dem er saß, weg; einige andere Boote begleiteten ihn. Plötzlich erhob sich ein heftiger Wirbelsturm, und die Wellen schlugen in das Boot, so daß es sich mit Wasser zu füllen begann. Er aber lag hinten im Boot auf einem Kissen und schlief. Sie weckten ihn und riefen: Meister, kümmert es dich nicht, daß wir zugrunde gehen? Da stand er auf, drohte dem Wind und sagte zu dem See: Schweig, sei still! Und der Wind legte sich, und es trat völlige Stille ein. Er sagte zu ihnen: Warum habt ihr solche Angst? Habt ihr noch keinen Glauben? Da ergriff sie große Furcht, und sie sagten zueinander: Was ist das für ein Mensch, daß ihm sogar der Wind und der See gehorchen?



Auszug aus der liturgischen Übersetzung der Bibel







Kommentar des heutigen Evangeliums :



Hl. Augustinus (354-430), Bischof von Hippo in Nordafrika, Kirchenlehrer

Psalmenerklärungen, Ps 54,10





„Er gebot dem Wind und sprach zum See: Schweig, sei still.“





Du bist auf dem See und es ist stürmisch. Dir bleibt nichts übrig, als zu schreien: „Herr, rette mich!“ (vgl. Mt 14,30). Der ohne Angst auf den Wellen geht, möge dir seine Hand entgegenstrecken, deine Angst von dir nehmen, dir Vertrauen einflößen, zu deinem Herzen sprechen und sagen: „Denke an alles, was ich erduldet habe. Hast du einen bösen Bruder zu ertragen, einen Feind, der von außen kommt? Hatte ich nicht ebenso meine Feinde? Draußen jene, die mit den Zähnen knirschten, drinnen den Jünger, der mich verraten hat“.

Der Sturm wütet furchtbar. Doch Christus rettet uns „vor Kleinmut und Sturm“ (Ps 54,9 LXX). Wird dein Boot hin und her geworfen? Dann vielleicht, weil Christus in dir schläft? Auf dem wild aufgewühlten See wurde das Boot, mit dem die Jünger unterwegs waren, in Bedrängnis gebracht, doch Christus schlief. Aber es kam der Augenblick, wo die Menschen sich bewusst wurden, dass sie den Herrn und Schöpfer des Windes bei sich hatten. Sie kamen zu Christus und haben ihn geweckt. Christus gebot den Winden und es trat völlige Stille ein.

Dein Herz ist zu recht aufgewühlt, wenn du den vergessen hast, an den du geglaubt hast. Und dein Leid wird unerträglich, wenn alles das, was Christus für dich erlitten hat, weit weg von deinem Geist bleibt. Wenn du nicht an Christus denkst, dann schläft er. Wecke Christus auf, wecke den Glauben. Denn Christus schläft in dir, wenn du seine Passion vergessen hast. Und wenn du dich seiner Passion erinnerst, dann wacht Christus in dir. Wenn du in deinem Herzen bedacht hast, was Christus gelitten hat, wirst dann nicht auch du dein Leid kraftvoll ertragen? Und womöglich wirst du im Leid ein wenig die Ähnlichkeit mit deinem König erkennen und dich freuen. Ja, wenn diese Gedanken beginnen werden, dich zu trösten, dir Freude zu bereiten, dann wisse, dass Christus sich erhoben und dem Wind geboten hat. Daher kommt die Stille in dir. „Ich erwartete – so sagt es ein Psalm – den, der mich rettet vor Kleinmut und Sturm.“





(Dutch) Reformed Church In America Daily Reading For Saturday, 29 January

From The Reformed Church in America:


January 29 Prayer Request

Pray that the 27 most recent Sankofa travelers find continued growth in their life and ministry from lessons learned on the trip.



Today's Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12

Matthew 5:1-12


The Beatitudes5When Jesus* saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely* on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.





The Heart Essence Of Buddhist Meditation

From Tricycle:

Home › Magazine › Winter 2007 › The Heart-Essence of Buddhist Meditationdharma talk


The Heart-Essence of Buddhist Meditation

The common roots of various Buddhist meditative practices. Artwork by Mia Muratori



Lama Surya Das

6 Twitter 165 Facebook 0 Email Clinging to one’s school and condemning others



Is the certain way to waste one’s learning.

Since all dharma teachings are good,

Those who cling to sectarianism

Degrade Buddhism and sever

Themselves from liberation.



—Milarepa, The One Hundred Thousand Songs



During my initial private meeting with the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, my first root guru, I asked him about the main points of meditation. He asked what kind of meditation I was doing, and I told him mindfulness of breathing. “What will you concentrate on when you stop breathing?” he asked.



That was a real eye-opener. Suddenly I realized that I might have to broaden the scope of my understanding of Buddhist practice. In time, I came to discover that it included a great deal more than any one meditation technique and also that the many forms of Buddhist meditation shared fundamental elements.



Lama Surya DasThe philosopher Simone Weil characterized prayer as pure undivided attention. Here is where all contemplative practices have a common root, a vital heart that can be developed in an almost infinite variety of skillful directions, depending on purpose and perspective. Different techniques of meditation can be classified according to their focus. Some focus on the field of perception itself, and we call those methods mindfulness; others focus on a specific object, and we call those concentrative practices. There are also techniques that shift back and forth between the field and the object.



Meditation, simply defined, is a way of being aware. It is the happy marriage of doing and being. It lifts the fog of our ordinary lives to reveal what is hidden; it loosens the knot of self-centeredness and opens the heart; it moves us beyond mere concepts to allow for a direct experience of reality. Meditation embodies the way of awakening: both the path and its fruition. From one point of view, it is the means to awakening; from another, it is awakening itself.



Meditation masters teach us how to be precisely present and focused on this one breath, the only breath; this moment, the only moment. In the Dzogchen tradition we refer to a “fourth time,” the transcendent moment of nowness. In Tibetan this is called shicha, a transcendent yet immanent dimension of timeless being that vertically intersects each moment of horizontal linear time—past, present, and future. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are quite naturally present to this moment—where else could we be? Meditation is simply a way of knowing this.



Different Buddhist schools recommend a variety of meditative postures. Some emphasize a still, formal posture, while others are less strict and more focused on internal movements of consciousness. Tibetan traditions, for instance, advise an upright spine, erect but relaxed; hands at rest in the lap, with the belly soft; shoulders relaxed, chin slightly tucked, and the gaze lowered with eyelids half shut; the jaw is slack with the tongue behind the upper teeth; the legs are crossed. A Soto Zen Buddhist saying instructs us to sit with formal body and informal mind. The common essential point is to remain balanced and alert, so as to pierce the veil of samsaric illusion.



Although most Westerners tend to conceive of Eastern forms of meditation as something done cross-legged with eyes closed, in a quiet, unlit place, the Buddha points with equal emphasis to four postures in which to meditate: sitting, standing, walking, and lying down. The Satipatthana Sutra says: “When you sit, know that you are sitting; when standing, know you are standing. . . .” This pretty much covers all our activities, allowing us to integrate meditative practice into daily life. Learn to sit like a Buddha, stand like a Buddha, walk like a Buddha. Be a Buddha; this is the main point of Buddhist practice.



While many people today practice meditation for physical and mental health, a deeper approach to practice energizes our inner life and opens the door to realization. In Tibetan, the word for meditation is gom, which literally means “familiarization” or “getting used to,” and in this sense meditation is a means by which we familiarize ourselves with our mind. The common Pali term for meditation is bhavana, meaning “to cultivate, to develop, to bring into being.” So we might then think of meditation as the active cultivation of mind leading to clear awareness, tranquility, and wisdom. This requires conscious effort.



But from another—and at first glance contradictory—perspective, there is nothing to do in meditation but enjoy the view: the magical, mysterious, and lawful unfolding of all that is, all of which is perfect as it is. In other words, we’re perfect as we are, and yet there’s work to be done. In this we find the union of being and doing: we swoop down with the bigger picture in mind—the view of absolute reality—and at the same time we climb the spiritual mountain in keeping with our specific aspirations and inclinations, living out relative truth. “While my view is as high as the sky, my actions regarding cause and effect [karma] are as meticulous as finely ground barley flour,” sang the Lotus Master Padmasambhava, who first brought Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century. By alternating between active cultivation and effortless awareness, we engage in a delicate dance that balances disciplined intention with simply being. By being both directive and allowing, we gradually learn to fearlessly explore the frontiers and depths of doing and being, and come to realize that whatever is taking place, whatever we may feel and experience, is intimately connected with and inseparable from intrinsic awareness.



“Not doing, not constructing, not fabricating, not altering or manipulating your mind, while remaining undistracted: this is my vital pithy instruction, the heart-essence of meditation.” So taught my own Dzogchen master Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche. “Beyond action and inaction, the sublime dharma is accomplished.”




Meditation is not about getting away from it all, numbing out, or stopping thoughts. Without trying to be rid of pesky thoughts and feelings, we learn how to practice being aware of them in the fleeting immediacy of the very moment in which they present themselves. We can cultivate awareness of any object: sounds, smells, physical sensations, perceptions, and so forth. Everything is grist for the mill—even those things we find terribly unpleasant. As the Tibetan Dragon Master Gyalwang Drukpa says, “Everything must be meditated!”



Like the archer straightening his arrow and perfecting his aim, the practitioner of meditation straightens out the mind while aiming his or her attentional energy at its object. Learning to drop what we’re doing, however momentarily, and to genuinely pay attention in the present moment, without attachment or bias, helps us become clear, just as a snow globe becomes clear when we stop shaking it and its flakes settle.



This settling process of concentrated attention has four stages: first, the letting go of distracting inner objects—such as feelings, thoughts, attractions, and aversions—and all outer objects; second, the attainment of serene one-pointedness of focus; third, the refinement of this state of concentration into a subtler and purer awareness. The fourth and final stage is the attainment of a state of simple wakefulness and equanimity conducive to clear vision and profound comprehension, an awareness beyond subject and object.



Let’s take an example: In breath-awareness meditation—the technique known as mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati in Pali)—we first observe the breath by intently following the tiny movements and physical sensations associated with each in- and out-breath. When we are distracted, we simply bring the wandering mind back to the object of attention. (In this case it is the breath, but whatever the particular practice—mantra, visualization, and so forth—the principle is the same.) Then, gradually relaxing into the object, we notice the gentle tide of thoughts and feelings subside as we fine-tune our focus. Later, as our awareness deepens, we abandon any dualistic notion of inner and outer as we become the breath itself. This calls to mind the haiku master Basho’s saying that in order to write about a tree, he would watch the tree until he became the tree. We watch the breath until we become the breath. In this way, as it is said in Zen, we come to know the breath, ourselves, and all things intimately. In the beginning, concentration is key. Concentrative meditations (Sanskrit shamatha) are said to be the useful means but not the end. The stability of mind established by shamatha becomes the foundation for insight meditation, or vipassana, in which the critical faculties of mind discern the nature of samsara: impermanent, without self, and ultimately unsatisfactory.



There are many techniques for developing concentration and insight, but the point is to not be caught up in and overly influenced by the ever-running narratives and desires of the mind. All center on the vital principles of nonjudgmental openness and relaxation with applied and discerning awareness. As practice matures, effortless, innate wakefulness is balanced by the discipline of mindfulness. What we call “mindfulness meditation” can be broadly defined as any conscious activity that keeps the cling-free attention anchored in the present moment, allowing us to see clearly what is happening, to distinguish what is wholesome from what is unwholesome, and to perceive the interdependent working of things. In the Satipatthana Sutra the Buddha identified four basic foundations of mindfulness: the body, feelings (in the sense that all sense impressions feel pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral), mind states and mental objects, and universal laws (dharmas). Paying careful attention to these aspects of ourselves brings self-knowledge and wisdom.



Mindfulness is the tool we use to bring the mind back home, to the present moment, to what is, just as it is, and to who and what we actually are. Through mindfulness we learn how not to be so distracted by thoughts, feelings, memories—our running inner narrative. That’s why buddhas are called jinas, “conquerors”: they have conquered their afflictive states of hatred, greed, and delusion, all of which obscure and diminish our innate Buddha-nature.



Mindful awareness frees us from habitual patterns, opening up a space between stimulus and response, allowing us to consciously choose how to respond to things rather than blindly react. With the discernment of mindfulness we no longer fall prey to karmic habits and unwholesome conditioning. As the pioneering Zen master Shunryu Suzuki said, “We pay attention with respect and interest, not in order to manipulate but to understand what is true. And seeing what is true, the heart becomes free.”



This is not just Buddhist double-talk. In the Diamond Sutra the Buddha says of his enlightenment that he has obtained nothing that wasn’t in him all along, there for the finding. And the Hevajra Tantra teaches, “We are all buddhas by nature; it is only adventitious obscurations which temporarily veil it from us.”



There are various Buddhist schools with different approaches and practices, but committed meditation practice is, in short, the way we apply the Buddha’s final words: “Work out your own salvation with diligence.”



In Tibetan Buddhism it is said that detachment is the root of meditation and devotion is its head. Bodhicitta (the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the welfare of others) is its soul. Mindfulness is its breath, vigilence its skin, and nondistraction its essence. Balance and harmony are the seat of meditation, and penetrating wisdom is its eye. Nowness is the time, and this place is the place. Self-discipline is the very bones of Buddha, and present-moment awareness is the heart of it all.



Milarepa said, “The ultimate view is to observe one’s mind, steadfastly and with determination.” When the Buddha stated, over twenty-five hundred years ago, that anyone could become enlightened through applying his teachings, he meant it. And many have reaped those blessed results. This is the promise of Buddha-dharma, of the wisdom of meditation. ▼



Lama Surya Das is a teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and founder of the Dzogchen Center. His new books are The Big Questions and Buddha Is As Buddha Does.



Guided Meditation: Simply Being




Sit comfortably, perhaps close your eyes, or lower your gaze. Take a deep breath or two and relax. Breathe slowly and let it all go. Release the tension and relax a little more.



Stop doing and settle back into just being. Let things settle without your direction or intercession. Let go. Wherever things fall is okay for now. Open to the wisdom of allowing, of inclusive acceptance. This is the inner secret to natural meditation.



Don’t get lost. Stay right here, at home and at ease. Befriend yourself; familiarize yourself with your own fundamental presence. Let awareness be uninterrupted by techniques or concepts.



If and when you feel lost, distracted, spaced out, or sleepy, get in touch with your breath. Watch the breath, observe the inhalation and exhalation as they effortlessly occur. Feel the breath moving in and out, anchoring you in the present moment while you again let everything go, without judgment, evaluation, or interference.



Opening gradually to the effortlessness of pure presence, turn your attention inward. All we seek can be found within. This is the process and practice of inner freedom.



Being Buddha, enjoy the buoyant peace, harmony, and delight of natural meditation.



Images: © Mia Muratori